Summited with Rose after deciding to ignore the ominous dark clouds coming over us from the Mont Blanc direction. About 1 min after summiting, the downpour started. We were pummeled by hail and rain. We quickly started our descent and Rose was no more than a few meters down when I heard the summit emitting a eerie buzzing noise which I surmise was due to the static electricity accompanying the storm. I down-climbed as fast as possible to a point about 20 m below the summit with some degree of shelter. Thankfully there was no lightening strike on our peak, and the storm passed almost as fast as it came. We finished the rappel in relative comfort (minus the rope getting stuck in a rather tenacious crack). The buzzing summit taught me my lesson... never risk climbing in the alps when thunderstorms are a possibility.

Nico, my brother Gabi and I from A. du Midi (9:30) to summit at (13:30), climbing in boots - a 4+ "chamoniard" ; )) ... great preparation for Dent Du Geant. You know why it's called pyramide in the end .... After negotiating the ugly rimaye and traversing some impressive crevasses ... then we celebrated with some beers and made night in Torino Hut.

Fantastic route. Got the 7am cable car up to the midi, and took a nice casual stroll to the base of the climb. Did the climb in 8 pitches took 3.5 - 4hrs, starting on the right (2 extra rock pitches). Rappeling down is a bit of a pain mind, one of the ropes got stuck, and had to climb up to free it. Then it was off back to the midi, which always seems to take double the time on the way back. But all in all a great recommended route.

Very nice climb - fairly sustained at around 5.5 - done with Philippe Gerschel. The route was much longer than I expected. We climbed in about 8 pitches starting from the foot of the ridge (using the alternate right-hand start). Access via the normal left-hand start seemed uncertain due to the very broken glacier. We descended by rappelling the route in 6 double-rope rappels. This was a bit of a pain since the rappels are not very clean and the rope is easily trapped behind flakes and blocks. Definitely a worthy route.